At Te Werahi Beach, just below Cape Reinga, Hannah filled a 200 mL bottle with seawater and put it in her pack. This bottle is called “the thing” and the water it contains represents what people recovering from mental illness carry.

Hannah suffers from depression, anxiety and a compulsion to harm herself. For others, the thing might be anything: post-traumatic stress disorder, the confusion of senile dementia, or simply a feeling of emptiness which nothing can fill. Hannah will be the thing bearer. When we reach the southernmost tip of South Island, or whatever the end point of our journey is going to be, we shall empty the bottle into the sea or onto the ground, symbolically throwing out sadness and distress for everyone who has suffered mental illness.